Teckomatorp () is a
locality situated in
Svalöv Municipality
Svalöv Municipality (''Svalövs kommun'') is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Svalöv.
The local government reform of 1952 grouped the 15 original entities into six larger municipalities. In ...
,
Skåne County
Skåne County ( sv, Skåne län, link=no ), sometimes referred to as Scania County in English, is the most southern county, or , of Sweden, basically corresponding to the traditional province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Kronobe ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
with 1,651 inhabitants in 2010.
It has a railway station (local trains) on the
Malmö–Teckomatorp–
Helsingborg railway line.
BT Kemi scandal
Teckomatorp is the site of one of the largest toxic spills in Sweden. The company BT Kemi produced
pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...
s. During the 1970s, the inhabitants of Teckomatorp started complaining of an acrid odour from the plant that made people ill. It was also said that BT Kemi had buried barrels of
toxic waste in the ground. However, the authorities did nothing for several years, despite efforts of campaigners such as
Monica Nilsson, a resident of Teckomatorp, who conducted a signature campaign among the citizens. The government took steps to investigate the issue only after a former employee of BT Kemi told a newspaper that the company was entering forged values within allowed limits into its emission journals. When the authorities finally started to dig, several hundreds of barrels with toxic contents were found.
In 1979 the plant was demolished, and in 1980 the southern area around the plant itself was cleaned. Later it was discovered that the northern area of the town was also polluted, and that the southern area remained polluted despite cleanup efforts.
[Dagens Nyheter 22 March 2008)] In 2009 a project to restore nature was completed: tons of contaminated topsoil were removed, and a natural park has been established on the site of poisoned area.
References
Further reading
*''Environmental reclaiming Teckomatorp site.'' Project update 22 September 2006. Visit from NORDROCKS 2006 Malmö. Lars Bevmo, Project manager, Municipality of Svalöv, Swede
*''The Poison plant that was blown up.'' The BT Kemi-scandal and establishing of the conception
environmental crime. (Giftfabriken som sprängdes. BT Kemi-skandalen och miljöbrottsbegreppets etablering) Report 2002:12, Brottsförebyggande rådet, Information och förlag, Stockholm. In Swedish, with English summary at the end
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Populated places in Svalöv Municipality
Populated places in Skåne County